It is well-known that retailers and business owners can suffer substantial financial losses as a result of retail theft. In many cases, shoplifters and thieves are repeat offenders. To protect against such losses, retailers and store owners have installed various theft deterrent systems, such as video systems, security personnel, and electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems.
Video systems are very expensive to acquire, install, and maintain. Video systems also require the store owners to hire personnel to view and monitor the video. Security personnel placed at retail entrances are limited because the security personnel are usually not able to visually discern whether an individual is leaving the retail environment with a purchased or a stolen item. EAS systems are used to identify articles as they pass through a gated area in a store. All articles must be tagged in order for the gate to identify that there has been an unauthorized removal of the article. Tagging all items within a retail store can be very costly, particularly if the tags are designed to remain on the packaging, even after purchase, and therefore cannot be reused. None of these current systems are particularly designed to address the problem of repeat shoplifting offenders. The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP) conducted a study in 2011 including data gathered from 15,000 shoplifting offenders. The NASP study showed that nearly half of the shoplifting offenders admitted to being repeat offenders.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.